Frying at one of Japan’s largest department stores, the Hankyu British Fair gave Ryan and Kimberley Hughes an opportunity to take their fish and chips halfway around the world. Beyond mastering the challenge of a new environment, Ryan was impressed by the exceptional Japanese work ethic and returned home with valuable insights to enhance his business
I didn’t know what to expect before leaving for Japan. I knew the culture would be different but in terms of the fish and chips, I had no idea what the equipment or ingredients would be like, so I was a bit hesitant. I didn’t want to serve something I wasn’t proud of. But I was pleasantly surprised.
The fryers, even though they were much smaller than what I’m used to, performed well. They kept up with the speed we needed, and the fish turned out great. The chips weren’t quite the same quality we get back home as we were using pre-cut frozen chips, but to the Japanese people, they were phenomenal as the potatoes they get in Japan are not good quality.
We spent six days cooking for customers at Hankyu’s Fukuoka store and then seven days in Osaka. On the first day at Fukuoka, we served around 800 portions and the numbers just kept climbing. Every day we were dipping into the next day’s stock. It was non-stop!
But it wasn’t just myself and Kim working flat out, the Japanese staff supporting us didn’t stop either. Their work ethic is phenomenal. You show them something once, and they’ll keep doing it for 12 hours straight, seven days a week. That’s something we could definitely learn from because even though we’ve got a very busy shop, sometimes the queue has to stop for us to catch up on chips, or to wait for a batch of fish to come out. Whereas in Japan, we had very small fryers and the queue did not stop.
The main reason for that was that the menu was a lot smaller in Japan – it was fish, chips and tartare sauce. It’s made me want to assess my business a little bit, see what items take the longest to cook, which ones are fiddly and not massive sellers, and decide whether we need to sell them because we can speed up the queue.
Another thing I’ve learned from being in Japan, which is hard for us in the UK and I think it’s been a fish and chip downfall for many years, is portion size and price. For ¥1500, which is about £12.50, customers were getting a 110g piece of fish and a 140g portion of chips – and they would share that between two. For that price here, customers expect a 7oz piece of fish and a 12oz portion of chips.
In my own shop, I’ve got portion control: our fish is weighed and our chips are done by scoops. But there are still a lot of chip shops out there that just pile it high and sell it cheap. It’s been an issue for many years but, being in Japan and witnessing the portions, the price and how patient people are to wait, really highlighted to me that our industry needs to adapt its approach.
I’m not saying I will change my portion sizes but, whereas generally I try and hold off putting my prices up when there is a slight increase in potatoes or fish, now I’m less likely to hesitate. Being in Japan has shown me people are willing to pay if the quality is there and, not only that, they are willing to queue and wait for quality food. It was a great trip on so many levels. It was hard work, especially towards the end, but I feel like I’ve brought back some real positives in terms of portions, prices and keeping the queues moving.
